Walt Disney Co.
Jiminy Cricket is whistling a happy tune after Disney's Dumbo-sized acquisition of media lion king Capital Cities/ABC left its competitors looking goofy. More than a Mickey Mouse operation, Burbank, California-based Disney is an entertainment fantasia that possesses the world's strongest media brand. With the $19 billion purchase in 1996, Disney picked up greater national and international exposure through the US's #1 TV network, several TV and radio stations, 3 cable channels (including top sports channel ESPN), and extensive holdings in publishing. With combined revenues of some $16.5 billion, the new colossus began life as the world's biggest entertainment company.
Even before the acquisition, Disney boasted a gargantuan stable of TV and movie production assets (including Buena Vista Television, the Disney Channel, Miramax Film Corp., and Touchstone Pictures), theme parks (including Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Epcot), publication companies (Disney Hachette Presse, Disney Press, Hyperion Press, and Mouse Works), and professional sports franchises (the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey team and a part of the California Angels baseball franchise).
However, Disney has not been without its disappointments. Disneyland Paris, formerly EuroDisney, has been Red Inkland since it opened in 1992. Also, Disney scuttled controversial plans for a US history theme park near a Civil War battlefield in Virginia.
Undeterred, CEO Michael Eisner is building on the Disney brand. He has assembled a new management team and is looking for new ways to extend the company's reach, such as the continuing release on video of Disney classics and the Broadway production of the "Beauty and the Beast" musical (originally released as an animated film).
Disney followed its 1994 blockbuster movie "The Lion King" with the release of "Pocahontas" and "Toy Story" the next year. "Pocahontas" brought in $140 million and was the #3 grossing film of 1995. But Disney doesn't cater just to kids. Miramax's "Pulp Fiction" was a smash hit too.
HISTORY
After his first animated film business failed, artist Walt Disney and his brother Roy started a film studio in 1923 in Hollywood. Walt directed the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, "Plane Crazy," in 1928 (the 3rd, "Steamboat Willie," was the first cartoon with a soundtrack). Disney's studio created short cartoons such as "The Three Little Pigs."
The studio produced its first animated feature film, "Snow White," in 1937 and "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio" in the 1940s. Disney produced "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955-59) and a weekly television series (under a number of titles) that ran for 29 straight years. Disneyland opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California.
Walt Disney died in 1966 of lung cancer, and Roy became chairman. Disney World opened in Florida in 1971, and Roy died the same year. His son Roy E., then animation VP, became the company's principal individual shareholder. Without Walt's and Roy's leadership and creativity, Disney films went from producing over 50% of company revenues in 1971 to only 20% in 1979.
Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller became president in 1980. Two years later Epcot opened in Florida. Miller started Touchstone Pictures in order to produce films like "Splash" (1984), Disney's first hit since "The Love Bug" (1969). Texas's Bass family, in alliance with Roy E. Disney, bought a controlling interest in the company in 1984. New CEO Michael Eisner (from film maker Paramount) and president Frank Wells (from movie producer Warner Bros.) ushered in a new era of innovation, prosperity, and high executive salaries.
The company started the Disney Channel (cable TV) and opened retail stores in the 1980s. Disney opened Tokyo Disneyland in 1984 and Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Florida in 1989.
Disney established Hollywood Records, a mainstream label, in 1990. Euro Disney opened near Paris in 1992 amid French concern over the park's possible effects on the nation's culture. The next year Disney bought Miramax Film Corp.
In 1994 Eisner underwent heart bypass surgery and president Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash, raising concerns about the company's future leadership. These worries were compounded by the resignation of Jeffrey Katzenberg (chairman of Disney's film unit) but apparently resolved with the naming of Creative Artists Agency chairman Michael Ovitz as the new Disney president in 1995.
That year Disney teamed up with 3 Baby Bells to develop, market, and deliver video programming. In 1996 Walt Disney Television signed a multimedia deal with production company Colossal Pictures. To accommodate newly acquired Capital Cities/ABC, Disney aligned itself into 3 divisions in 1996: creative content, broadcasting, and theme parks.
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